The TV title sequence is, of course, an art form as old as TV itself. Whether you're mainlining The Golden Girls or hitting play on a just-dropped instalment of Ted Lasso, the intro sets the mood: a catchy theme song, smiling cast members, gorgeous scenery, or arresting graphics welcome you to the next 22 or 44 or 60 minutes of your life, as you settle in for another episode.
After you've watched that sequence a fair few times, there's an almost Pavlovian effect: think of how the first notes of The Simpsons or The Fresh Prince of Bel Air themes take you back to the days of a cathode-ray hum and after-school snacks. Or how if someone says "Ohhh" at the right pitch you'll want desperately to ask them who lives in a pineapple under the sea. Or how everyone has their own answer when someone asks "What song do you automatically hear after the HBO sound?"
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Your favorite show's intro is a signal to your brain that you are about to have a good time. But in the streaming era, watching the same opening credits gets tedious when you're well into a marathon — and can feel like you could fit a whole extra episode into the time you'd spend sitting through every one-minute intro in a 24-episode season. To facilitate faster, more frictionless binges, Netflix introduced the Skip Intro button in 2017 — and it's now a feature that audiences expect from all streaming platforms.
But, as we've mentioned, the TV intro is still an art form. An absolute banger of a theme that sets the mood for the episode ahead, iconic visuals you can't look away from, fun new details to look for each week — just about everyone has at least one show that defies The Button.
That's why we've created The Unskippables, a March Madness-inspired bracket designed to find the least skippable opening credits sequences on TV right now. The Mashable team narrowed down all our favorites to a mere 32 shows, which will face off against each other in a reader-voted single elimination tournament over the next 10 days.
Because there are more TV shows than there are basketball teams in the NCAA, we had to put some rules in place (and even then the longlist cracked 50 titles). First, the contenders had to be streaming or airing currently — this includes shows that ended in the last 12 months and shows on hiatus but with new seasons confirmed (or at least, not officially cancelled). Yes, that excludes many of your iconic favorites, from BoJack Horseman to The Office to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Lines must be drawn somewhere.
Secondly, opening titles in the contest had to be long enough to be worth skipping. Plenty of shows have seconds-long animations or even static title cards — maybe you could do without them multiple episodes in a row, but by the time you find the remote, they're over. No shade to these series, though. We appreciate that you respect our time.
To vote, head over to Mashable's main Twitter account, @mashable, where poll threads for each round will go up at 5 p.m. ET today, Wednesday, and Friday. The Final Four will face off next Tuesday, and our top two contenders will duke it out in the Grand Final two days later. If you want to fill out your own bracket, you can save the image above — and tag us!
As for how to actually make those tough choices? When in doubt, judge on the credits alone. You might love Stranger Things and consider Westworld more of a pop culture chore, but you know you'll watch those weird milky androids do their thing at the top of the hour every week; you might be a die-hard, rusted-on Always Sunny stan, but secretly get more serotonin from singing along to the Bluey theme alone on your couch.
Vote with your heart — and your button-pushing finger.
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